News Detail

18

Dec, 2017

SDLL Spring 2018 Information

Parents,

As everyone makes the final preparations for the holidays, South Durham Little League (SDLL) is preparing for the 2018 baseball season. Given registration for the Spring 2018 season will open on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2018, we wanted to pass along some important dates and other information regarding the upcoming season.

Once again SDLL will be supporting T-Ball, Machine Pitch, and Player Pitch divisions in the Spring 2018. The league will send out an email indicating registration is open, but you can register your player by going to www.sdll.organd simply select registration. Please note if you did not play for SDLL in the Fall of 2017, this is a new registration system and additional time will be required to complete the online registration process. As noted during the annual public meeting, if your player played for SDLL in the Spring of 2017 and you live in Wake County, the SDLL Player Agent will be contacting you after you have registered regarding the waiver process for 2018. We strongly encourage everyone to register your players as soon as possible as we will close registration once our capacity is reached. Registration fees for the Spring 2018 season are as follows:

Juniors - $200
Machine/Kid Pitch Divisions - $175
T-ball - $135

We would like to emphasize that SDLL supports a competitive baseball product for everyone. We encourage your sons and/or daughters to come out and participate in our league. However, if your daughter prefers to play softball, girls within the SDLL boundary are eligible to play with Bull City Little League. BCLL Softball registrationopens January 15th, 2018.

SDLL will be opening registration for a Juniors division in 2018. As in previous years, our support for this division hinges on the amount of players that register and our ability to identify suitable fields.

Little League International Rule Changes

As you may be aware, in 2015 Little League International made changes to how a player’s league age is determined. As a result, SDLL and many other leagues are facing an inordinately large number of 12 year old players this year. In recognition of this issue, Little League International has made the following changes:

The Little League rule specifying no more than eight league age 12 players may play for a single Majors team was been suspended for 2018.

The Little League rule indicating a Majors division may not have more than 10 teams has been suspended for 2018.

These rulings have a significant impact on SDLL players league aged 12, 11 and 10. Based on the two rules being suspended for 2018, SDLL can confidently say we will support a single Majors Division in 2018. Per the rules, player’s league age 12 must play the Majors division (unless the player’s parents submit a waiver to be approved by Little League requesting their player not play Majors). Players’ league age 10 or 11 will be placed into the appropriate division based upon their SDLL experience and results of their skills evaluation. Players will NOT be forced to play up a division in order to accommodate Little League mandates.

We have previously communicated the bat changes for 2018; however SDLL would like to remind you again of the new bat regulations put into effect for the 2018 season by Little League International. If your player will be participating in Machine Pitch or Player Pitch divisions, the bat they used in 2017 or earlier can no longer be used in game play and players should not purchase any used bats. Given this new requirement and a very successful SlugFest 2017, SDLL purchased new bats meeting the new USA Baseball standard bat for each team in the Spring 2018. All teams, from T-Ball thru Majors, will be provided one new USA Baseball standard bat. For more information on the bat standards change, you can follow this link.

2018 Important Dates

As you prepare for Spring, please take the following dates into consideration:

The Majors division has league activities on Monday, Wednesday and Friday this season. However, we are anticipating more teams in this division for 2018 and Majors division activities may also include some Saturday games this year.

The AAA and AA division will have most league activities on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Occasional Monday, Wednesday, and Friday practices may occur for these leagues.

The A and Rookie divisions will have 3 league activities each week. These activities may be any weekday and Saturday.

SDLL generally does not schedule league activities on Sunday, but Sunday afternoons may be utilized in 2018 to schedule make-up events late in the season, if and when needed, to ensure SDLL complies with the Little League rule requiring each team play a minimum of 12 games.

The T-Ball division will have one practice during the week and one game on Saturday. There are no make-ups in T-Ball. T-Ball games will begin April 14th.

Quick reminder, players are assigned to divisions based on their SDLL experience and the results of their evaluation. SDLL can not take carpool or teammate requests into consideration when assigning players to divisions.

As in previous seasons, anyone interested in coaching can contact the SDLL Coaching Coordinator Tom Hickey at this address

Sorry for the length of this e-mail, but we wanted to ensure this important information was provided to you. And don’t forget our FAQas a source of additional information about the league.

We wish all of you a wonderful holiday as well as a healthy and happy 2018. Looking forward to seeing you all back out on the diamond soon!